View full sizeThomas Boyd/The OregonianThe Astoria-Megler Bridge across the Columbia River is an Oregon icon.

Two centuries ago next month, a U.S. merchant ship sailed across the dangerous Columbia River bar and put ashore Oregon's first permanent Euro-American settlers.

A commemorative log blockhouse, built in 1956, marks the spot of their settlement, Fort Astoria.

The fur trading post evolved into a city and now, 200 years later, has become a favorite of Oregonians and a close second-best in America, according to a recent Budget Travel online poll on cool small towns.

Sounds like a reason to party!

Astoria is inviting Oregon and the world to join in celebrating its bicentennial, with a series of events beginning in May and running through September. Tall ships, Chinook tribal dancers, Reba McEntire, fur trade re-enactors, Coast Guard aircraft and Judy Collins have accepted invites.

Even if you're not the big-event type, Astoria is always worth a visit.

Book a hotel room downtown, park the car and cruise around on foot or by trolley. That old blockhouse is a great place to start.

The historical mural on the wall behind it is enticing. So is the adjacent garden, where those long-ago settlers began Oregon's farming industry and continued with stock raising and shipbuilding.

If John Jacob Astor's party hadn't arrived by sea that spring, landing on April 12, the British who came by river from Canada three months later would have laid claim. Oregonians could have been speaking with a different accent.

Even more interesting than the Fort Astoria blockhouse are the recently opened businesses in the historic district around it. This area of rejuvenation is two blocks from the Liberty Theater, the restored 1925 Venetian-themed vaudeville house at the city's heart.

The 4-year-old brewery carries early Astoria's British name. Yes, it was named for King George III, the guy the 13 Colonies revolted against. Relations with the British are much better these days, and John Jacob Astor VIII will represent the British House of Lords as a hereditary peer at a bicentennial event.

It's a good bet Chris Nemlowill, the marketing guru behind the brewery, will invite Astor over for a pint of 1811 Lager, a special edition brew dedicated to the bicentennial.

The brewery recently completed a fivefold output expansion to 6,000 barrels per year. The thirsty can taste it on site in the pub, or in the adjacent tap room that just opened in one of the few downtown businesses that survived the 1922 fire.

"The brewing room used to be a Chevy dealer's showroom," Nemlowill said, pointing to ceiling beams that don't come that big anymore. "Our pub used to be an auto repair shop. We're aiming for a renaissance here by attracting small businesses that don't take business from each other." Glass blowing up close

One such is Fernhill Glass Studio, which rents space from the brewery across the pioneer vegetable garden. Glassblower Claude Kurtz has been around nearly as long as glass has been blown in Oregon and is well-known in Troutdale's art scene.

His partner, Chris Hucke, offers lessons with a second furnace for those who want to create their own glass paperweights or other intricate designs. Their studio has elevated viewing of the work taking place below, sort of like the hot shop in Tacoma's glitzy Museum of Glass without the $12 cover charge.

Visitors should beware of Miss Kitty, the quaker parrot who dotes over grizzled Claude but will take a peck at anyone else's finger.

Not far away are the Fiber Arts Academy, Astoria Hemp Works, Vintage Hardware, Nepal Exchange and Astoria Co-op food store. Each attracts a flow of foot traffic that keeps the district lively.

And then there's the Banker's Suite and Ballroom, housed in the former U.S. Bank building. A venue for private events, it also has a public gift shop. That means the curious can stop by for a peek at the kind of opulence Marie Antoinette surrounded herself with before she met her fate on the French guillotine.

The upstairs suite rents for $650 per night for a couple. Even those who spend a night likely won't have time to sit on all the sofas and chairs.

Plenty more to taste and see

A quick tour of the Fort Astoria neighborhood only scratches the surface. The city also has the central downtown, waterfront, bridge district, Pier 39, column and world-class maritime museum. Those with bounce in their steps can see them all without getting into a car.

And Astoria has way more than its share of good restaurants for a city of 10,000.

After a short respite at Hotel Elliott, the historic boutique charmer in the middle of downtown, there's still time in the day for another walk to look at art.

RiverSea Gallery is more like a museum than an art shop, with 3,500 square feet of display space primarily for local artists. Steve Eichenberger's oversize ceramic rabbits steal the eye, with their flowing ears and detailed musculature. It would take hours to browse the rest of the gallery's paintings, prints, jewelry, sculpture, glass, ceramics, fiber art, furniture and photography.

Fine art photography also has an exclusive home in Astoria at LightBox Photographic Gallery. Nearing its second anniversary, the gallery has already displayed prints by 150 photo artists. A recent Hawaiian surfing exhibit supplemented the photographs with surfing equipment hung from the walls and ceiling, sans the thick wet suits required to surf locally.

Just when you think Astoria is getting too trendy, step across Marine Drive to a three-business complex at the corner of 11th Street.

Home-style breakfast is legendary in the three-booth Columbian Cafe, a hole-in-the-wall hangout whose tasty delights are a closely guarded local secret. Its namesake, the Columbian Theater, is a single-screen movie house where the over-21 crowd grabs balcony seats for pizza and beer while watching second-run flicks.

Sandwiched between is the Voodoo Room, which offers a whiff of New Orleans-style decadence when it comes to life at night.

Astoria is no longer as decadent as in 1882, according to a display at the Heritage Museum. It offers this observation from a story in The Oregonian: "On a Saturday night the town fairly howls. During the fishing season it is perhaps the most wicked place on earth for its population."

Despite the decline in fishing, visitors can still have a howling good time in the city on the Columbia. Take in a bicentennial event and find out.